McCain Doesn't Like to Mention His POW Status and We're Not Sick of Him Doing It. Meanwhile, Back in Reality…

McCain, in a sad attempt to suck wind from Obama’s sails and blow smoke up the right wing’s ass, brought up – betcha didn’t see this coming – his POW status:

“My opponent had the chance to express such confidence in America, when he delivered a much anticipated address in Berlin. He was the picture of confidence, in some ways. But confidence in oneself and confidence in one’s country are not the same. And in that speech, Senator Obama left an important point unclear. He suggested that the end of the Cold War proved that there was, quote, ‘no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.’ Now I missed a few years of the Cold War, as the guest of one of our adversaries, but as I recall the world was deeply divided during the Cold War — between the side of freedom and the side of tyranny. The Cold War ended not because the world stood “as one,” but because the great democracies came together, bound together by sustained and decisive American leadership.” [emphasis eye-rollingly added]

There was a little myth going around that said McCain “only reluctantly” brings up his history as a POW. This will become an urban legend on par with alligators in sewers and hooks hanging from car doors.

When he first ran for Congress in Arizona nearly three decades ago, John McCain had one clear liability: he wasn’t from the state, and he could count the number of years he had lived there on a couple of fingers.

So his primary opponent, state senator Jim Mack, attacked him as a Johnny-come-lately. To counter the charge, at a candidate forum, McCain offered a decidedly pointed response. “I wish I could have had the luxury, like you, of growing up and living and spending my entire life in a nice place like the first district of Arizona, but I was doing other things,” he said. “As a matter of fact, when I think about it now, the place I lived longest in my life was Hanoi.”

Don’t this just sound eerily similar to the McCain we know and loathe today? The only difference between then and now is that he wasn’t using POW as a panacea for every woe from Abba to zings over his houses.

There are plentiful signs his POW bucket is springing leaks. There’s the above TIME magazine article, whose title, “Is McCain Overplaying the POW Card?” speaks volumes. When even conservative-loving TIME decides their bestest hero evah McCain is getting repetitive, you know the magic’s worn off.

DENVER — Former president Jimmy Carter called Republican presidential candidate John McCain a “distinguished naval officer,” but he said the Arizona senator has been “milking every possible drop of advantage” from his time served as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

[snip]

He said he was bewildered by McCain’s performance at the Saddleback Presidential Forum hosted by pastor and author Rick Warren in Lake Forest, Calif., earlier this month.

Carter said that whether he was asked about religion, domestic or foreign affairs, every answer came back to McCain’s 5½ years as a POW.

“John McCain was able to weave in his experience in a Vietnam prison camp, no matter what the question was,” Carter said. “It’s much better than talking about how he’s changed his total character between being a senator, a kind of a maverick … and his acquiescence in the last few months with every kind of lobbyist pressure that the right-wing Republicans have presented.”

All but the most rabid of McCain’s MSM fans are starting to get that. McCain doesn’t have anything else – no fresh policies, no realistic plan to rescue America, nothing to offer the country except a POW card. “Vote for me – I’m a war hero!”

There are too many voices being raised now, not only in the liberal blogosphere, but in the hallowed, hollowed halls of the MSM, for that card to work much longer. It’s never a good idea to run a campaign on victimhood and the sympathy vote. Americans don’t like whiners. Sympathy and admiration can turn to outrage all too easily if the hand is overplayed.

I have a feeling McCain’s going to be throwing down that trump card at every opportunity next week during the RNC. And I have a feeling that America’s going to take a collective look at it for the 10 billionth time, look him in the eye, and give him some straight talk: “So fucking what?”

He has no ace in the hole. And I for one will be thrilled to see Obama lay down the royal flush and rake the pot in.

(Disclaimer: I am no poker player, so that metaphor may be completely fucking wrong. I’ll admit that, and play no victim card to excuse my appalling ignorance.)

2 thoughts on “McCain Doesn't Like to Mention His POW Status and We're Not Sick of Him Doing It. Meanwhile, Back in Reality…”

Jimmy Carter’s observation is a good one. While it was certainly an important thing in his life, maybe the most important, being a POW isn’t the only thing he’s done. He’s been a Senator, a father, a husband (and ex-husband), and several other things. Dragging that experience into every conversation ought to get old after enough repetition.

The poker metaphor is fine. Royal flush – the highest possible straight flush – beats everything (except another royal flush, but the chances of one are incredibly small, and a second gets you into astronomical odds), so if you lay one down at the end of betting – say in some form of draw poker – you would indeed start raking in the pot.McCain’s definitely missing an opportunity to refer to the other aspects of his life. Some are rather special. I mean, not only has he been a husband and an ex-husband, he’s been a husband twice over at the same time! There’s not many politicians that can say that they are so committed to the family that they’ve had two at once.

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